KUCHING: Everyone must play their part in creating awareness and disseminating mitigation measures to address climate change, says Assistant Minister of Local Government and Housing Datu Dr Penguang Manggil.

“The issue of climate change is indeed a very complicated and yet a very important or significant matter that most, if not all of us must recognise and understand,” he said when launching the national-level World Environmental Health Day 2019 themed ‘Climate Change Challenges, Time for Global Environmental Health to Act in Unison’ yesterday.

He was representing Minister of Local Government and Housing Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian at the launch at Penview Convention Centre.

Penguang said the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 at the Rio de Janeiro World Summit on sustainable development served as a launching pad for stronger action to address the issue.

“The involvement of all civil societies, NGO (non-governmental organisation), regional groupings, academicians, national governments, local communities as well as individuals are extremely important in creating awareness.

“The holding of this World Environmental Health Day celebration is one noble deed that we must continue to pursue at even larger scales in the future involving all strata of our society,” he added.

Penguang noted that since the World Environmental Health Day was first celebrated in Bali, Indonesia on Sept 26, 2011, it had become an annual event celebrated worldwide.

He said forest and peat soil fires in Indonesia and Malaysia caused a 40 per cent increase in the number of haze-related illnesses such as conjunctivitis, asthma, respiratory infection and body rashes in the region.

He noted that rising carbon dioxide levels which contributed to climate change, might also reduce the nutrient value in staple crops.

This, he said, could increase food insecurity among some populations particularly those in developing countries.

“It is for this very reason that the civil society calls for all people from every walk of life to come together to save our mother earth from the catastrophic consequences of the climate change,” he added.